Chris Ashton: Heineken Cup semi-final against Toulon at Twickenham is last chance to convince British and Irish Lions

Saracens wing Chris Ashton believes that the Heineken Cup semi-final against
Toulon, who are set to be captained by Jonny Wilkinson, at Twickenham on
Sunday offers him a last crack at redemption as he looks to convince the
British and Irish Lions management team that he should be selected for the
tour to Australia.

Spintered hope: following a poor Six Nations for England Chris Ashton knows he has to shine against Toulon to stand a chance of making the Lions squad heading Down Under Photo: GETTY IMAGES

Yet no sooner was he back in the Saracens bosom then the 26-year-old was showing glimpses of the sort of form that once made him the most exciting prospect in European rugby, scoring the try that clinched Saracens 27-16 victory against Ulster in the quarter-final. And now, a high-profile occasion on the grand stage, delivers a chance to show that he is not an also-ran in the Lions stakes.

“I probably spent too much time thinking about it during the season,” Ashton said. “You know it’s there and you want to be part of it so much it distracts you.

"The loss in Wales was a real shock to the system. No-one expected it. To go away from that was pretty difficult, to even understand why it happened.

“As for the Lions, a lot of the other lads are sat at home this weekend and not playing. We’re out there, the only English team in the semi-finals. We’ve got a chance to have a shot at it and remind them [the Lions selectors] we’re still playing and have got something to offer.”

Ashton is at pains to point out that his priority is to play well for his club and that good things might follow from that. It is the musketeer men­tality that is Saracens’ calling card. Ashton suffers from a distorted image of an attention-seeker, as being ­selfish, one who seeks the limelight.

Given that he celebrated his try against Ulster with a trademark Ash-Splash ball-in-one-hand swallow dive, he is not exactly a shrinking violet. However, he is also a more sensitive soul than depicted, more selfless, too. He is a grafter first, show-boater only when the toil has borne fruit.

He acknowledges that his form tailed off for the national side. “It’s always tough with England, with the media and the spotlight,” said Ashton, who has scored only two international tries in 18 months, a lacklustre return given that his overall record of 17 tries in 34 tests is a decent tally.

“The stick I was getting was something I hadn’t experienced before but hopefully I’m better off for going through it. The chances were not coming but we were winning until that final shock in Cardiff. Only then do you look back and realise that it didn’t go as well as I wanted it to do, but it wasn’t for lack of trying.”

Saracens signed Ashton from Northampton last summer. He did not seem an immediate fit for a club that have set great store on their one-for-all mentality. But they have embraced him, as he has them, to their mutual benefit.

“Anybody would be affected by the criticism Chris got,” Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall said. “It is to his credit that he has come back and been as good as he’s been.

"We took the view that Chris operates at his best when he feels loved. You don’t concentrate on what he can’t do. You concentrate on what he can do. To a very large extent we’ve let him be and told him much we rate him. And he’s been great. His performance against Ulster was at a very high level. He’s scoring tries. And he’s happy.”

Ashton would probably need to score a stack of tries to make the Lions selectors think again. He is all too aware of that. There is pressure to deliver, first and foremost for Saracens as they tilt for a place in their first ever Heineken Cup final.

“That’s why I came here, to have challenges like this, tough ones, with Jonny pulling the strings for Toulon, at Twickenham to boot, with a lot of interest and a lot riding on it,” Ashton said.